Last weekend, I had the opportunity to assist in photographing a wedding in Baltimore, MD. The area around the Inner Harbor of the city is a beautiful cityscape of tall buildings, wide streets,. Moreover, there are elevated pedestrian walkways, and a functional boat harbor. Especially on weekends, the area teems with people going to restaurants, shops, and museums that line the harbor. Luckily, there was one weekday when I had the chance to explore the city without much activity in the mid-morning. The harbor had a different feel. It was more serene and people that were around, were on the way to businesses and meetings instead of social gatherings. At this time, I was inspired by the difference from every other time that I have visited. It was easier to slow down with the camera and set up frames.
From the nearby Federal Hill neighborhood, there are monuments surrounding a promontory point that overlooks the harbor. In general, this is a popular spot for portrait sessions with couples and families. Both during the day, and into evening, the views of the harbor and city are a perfect backdrop. There are nice perspectives to the skyscrapers in the distance.
When I was four years old, my mother took me to my first piano lesson. This would be the start of 16 years of formal training in music. Many good lessons learned that translate to photography. One of my first lessons that I learned after getting my hands on the keys was how loud to play. The small “p” is musical notation for softly, quietly and the small “f” is the opposite – play loudly.
These are noted when the composer wants a change from how loud you were playing just before the notation. I remember it being more difficult for me to play quietly than to pound away on the keys! The concept that was taught from very early on was dynamics. It starts very simply, teaching student to play quiet or loud, but changing how loud you play notes increases the contrast that the audience hears in their ears. It expands the dynamic range of the music making it more interesting to listen.
Photography Dynamics
In photography, contrast is always a setting that you can adjust either in camera or in software. Increasing contrast in a photo will make dark parts of the image darker, and light parts brighter. Just as in a piece of music, the increase in dynamic range will make the photo more interesting to view for the eyes. Here is an example from our trip to the McKee-Beshers sunflower fields which illustrates the concept. This photo is how the camera captured it with default settings:
This is how most camera would capture the scene as you walked out into the field. It gets all the information, but there is no ‘pop’ out of the frame. With any photo editing software on your smartphone or computer, you can push the contrast in the frame:
With just that simple change, the image is already a step above what most people will post online from their point-and-shoot cameras and cell phone cameras. It does take a little effort, but it is worth it to make your photography stand out a little from what it posted out there.
Since I had the time, I took a few bracketed exposures to make a high-dynamic range image of the sunflower field. This really increases the local contrast of each of the colors, and gives a more surreal representation of the scene. I tried to make it a little closer to how your eyes will see the scene since the human eye can see much more range of brightness than the camera. I think it came out well!
The Washington Monument needs some work. Back in August 2011, there was an earthquake that was centered in central Virginia that shook the entire region. I am a native to northern Virginia, and we have emphatically never experienced anything like that! Thinking back to that day, I remember sitting in my living room editing photos. Then, the house started to shake! I could hear the plates and forks in the cabinets shaking, then running to the deck to see the divider between our neighbors really swaying like it was windy outside.
By the time I ran out the front door, I saw two of our neighbors out there already – we discussed the quake for a little while before returning inside. I could still feel edgy for a good hour afterwards. Following the quake, I can see why they have drills for them in areas that have them more often. I clearly had no idea where to go in those few seconds. Luckily, we didn’t have any damage unlike the large obelisk in downtown Washington, DC.
Repair Scaffolding
The Washington Monument sustained some damage from the shaking. There is dramatic video from inside where tourists where in the observation deck at the time of the earthquake. Following the quake there were inspections by engineers both inside and outside the structure which also made for some amazing photos as they rappelled up the exterior checking for weakness in the stonework. Recently, and scaffolding was erected around all the sides of the monument to allow workers to easily repair the damage. Last week, lights were illuminated inside the scaffolding to restore a familiar yet altered scene to the landscape. We took some time to go down one evening to see how it looked. I was impressed!
The design of the repair structure was definitely taken into consideration. It is very clean, and it mirrors the monument very well. This is as close to the monument as you can get right now – luckily, there was a little break in the fencing that was just enough for me to get my camera lens through to get a clean view!
They even added the red blinking lights at the top to warn the many aircraft that fly in the area to the outside of the scaffolding. Seeing as how I can barely get to the top of my roof, this is the closest I will come to seeing what it is like up there. It will only be about a year before the repairs are complete.
